The Economist magazine is, famously, the magazine you are supposed to claim to read if you are ever granted a job interview by the CIA. When they asked us here at BLACKFIVE to review their latest book -- it is chiefly a conglomeration of articles on military and intelligence technologies -- they were quick to mention that Xinhua has purchased the Chinese translation rights. This is one of those pleasant games that intelligence and military professionals play: we know that the Chinese leadership will have already read the articles, since they will have read them in the Economist's print run; so the purpose of the Chinese edition of this book will be to push these articles down to the lower-level functionaries and officers who do not read the magazine. Thus, we should make sure to purchase lots of copies of this book as well, in order to make sure that our officers' corps understands what the Chinese are thinking....

I admire the clever maneuver by their marketing branch, which is worthy of a PSYOP/MISO officer. So, what will the Chinese be learning if they read this book?

Since this is a collection of reprinted articles, the value-added aspect of such a book is in the introductory material, as well as any useful appendicies or other reference matter. As for the latter, there is only a lengthy index. As for the former, I hope it represents a further attempt at psychological manipulation rather than a serious introduction to the topic. It is a beautiful reconstruction of the argument for the "revolution in military affairs" and network-centric warfare circa, say, 2004: its relevance to 2012 is highly dubious. Reading the introductory matter, you might conclude that the Economist has learned nothing at all from the last eight years of experience.

So that leaves the articles. If you are a regular reader of the Economist, you will have seen these already. If you are not, however, there are some interesting insights to be had into ways that an evolving military like China's might improve itself. The most important insight for the Chinese -- I would suggest to any American military officers reading this, and wanting to know what China will take away from it -- is this one:

To prepare for sorties in the run-up to the first Gulf war, the US AirForce needed to quickly retrieve about 500 containers on a logisticsship that carried five times as many. But tactical plans had evolvedsince loading, so the needed containers were not on top. The shiphad become an enormous crane-operated Rubik’s cube. The puzzlewas complicated by the risk of chain-reaction explosions: some containerscould not be placed near other containers. Nor could they beoffloaded dockside, for the ship, likened to a big powder keg, wasunwelcome in Persian Gulf ports. Digging out the containers required30 days of expensive, around-the-clock crane work.Eighteen years later, in 2009, a US Navy contractor hired to solvethe problem unveiled a solution. BEC Industries, a Florida company,had developed a container-moving crane system that uses combinatorial-mathematics software to work out efficient shuffling patterns,greatly reducing the number of times containers must be moved.

That's the kind of technology solution that represents a vast improvement to logistics capacity, but that is relatively cheap to implement: it is, in fact, very similar to desigining a program aimed at solving a Rubix's cube. As China pushes to increase its capacity to project force, it will begin to run into problems of this nature.

The other section I found highly relevant was the section on the difficulties facing human intelligence collection and clandestine operations. As the book points out, technology makes some kinds of collection vastly easier than they have been: signals intelligence is getting better by the hour, for example. Clandestine human intelligence is much harder, though: the ability to cross-check vast fields of data mean that it's much harder to set up a fake persona that will stand up to investigation. A credit card set up for the officer needs to show consistent history; they may need a plausible social media presence going back several years to avoid suspicion. Their cell-phones are easily bugged, and while it isn't hard to disable the bugs -- you can remove the battery and put it in the fridge, as the book suggests -- doing so will be obvious to any counterintelligence service tracking you. Dead drops can be watched by tiny hidden cameras; passports have biometrics.

What is the solution to this? Well, as to that, there are clues in the book to a way forward: it is a way that I will not describe in detail, precisely because the Chinese read BLACKFIVE as well as the Economist. (Just check our logs.) I will say that it is an area in which the American government is weak, but that we have the capacity to do it if we can get the bureaucracy to endorse it.

This book is worth a few hours of your time if you don't regularly read the Economist. Do skip the introduction. If you want your organization to play the game of guessing what China will learn from it, so as to set up countermeasures, look for solutions that are cheap and easy to implement but that solve big problems. China is, technologically speaking, a pirate culture: don't expect them to invest magnificient amounts in never-before-seen technologies (even their anti-ship ballistic missile, which comes in for a mention here, is really a quite old technology). Look for the things (like ad hoc directional antennae for cell phones) that are easy to make and that can create significant leverage for overcoming American technological advantages (like NSA eavesdropping).

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The Economist's _Modern Warfare, Intelligence and Deterrence_ -- a Review

The Economist magazine is, famously, the magazine you are supposed to claim to read if you are ever granted a job interview by the CIA. When they asked us here at BLACKFIVE to review their latest book -- it is chiefly a conglomeration of articles on military and intelligence technologies -- they were quick to mention that Xinhua has purchased the Chinese translation rights. This is one of those pleasant games that intelligence and military professionals play: we know that the Chinese leadership will have already read the articles, since they will have read them in the Economist's print run; so the purpose of the Chinese edition of this book will be to push these articles down to the lower-level functionaries and officers who do not read the magazine. Thus, we should make sure to purchase lots of copies of this book as well, in order to make sure that our officers' corps understands what the Chinese are thinking....

I admire the clever maneuver by their marketing branch, which is worthy of a PSYOP/MISO officer. So, what will the Chinese be learning if they read this book?

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Former Paratrooper and Army Officer, "Blackfive" started this blog upon learning of the valorous sacrifice of a friend that was not reported by the journalist whose life he saved. Email: blackfive AT gmail DOT com

Instapinch
Bill Paisley, otherwise known as Pinch, is a 22 year (ongoing) active and
reserve naval aviator. He blogs over at www.instapinch.com on a veritable
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Mr. Wolf has over 26 years in the Army, Army NG, and USAR. He’s Airborne with 5 years as an NCO, before becoming an officer. Mr. Wolf has had 4 company commands. Signal Corp is his basic branch, and Public Affairs is his functional area. He recently served 22 straight months in Kuwait and Iraq, in Intel, PA, and senior staff of MNF-I. Mr. Wolf is now an IT executive. He is currently working on a book on media and the Iraq war. Functional gearhead.

In Iraq, he received the moniker of Mr. Wolf after the Harvey Kietel character in Pulp Fiction, when "challenges" arose, they called on Mr. Wolf...
Email: TheDOTMrDOTWolfAT gmail DOT com

Deebow is a Staff Sergeant and a Military Police Squad Leader in the Army National Guard. In a previous life, he served in the US Navy. He has over 19 years of experience in both the Maritime and Land Warfare; including deployments to Southwest Asia, Thailand, the South Pacific, South America and Egypt. He has served as a Military Police Team Leader and Protective Services Team Leader and he has served on assignments with the US State Department, US Air Force Security Police, US Army Criminal Investigation Division, and the US Drug Enforcement Administration. He recently spent time in Afghanistan working with, training and fighting alongside Afghan Soldiers and is now focused on putting his 4 year Political Science degree to work by writing about foreign policy, military security policy and politics.

McQ has 28 years active and reserve service. Retired. Infantry officer. Airborne and Ranger. Consider my 3 years with the 82nd as the most fun I ever had with my clothes on. Interests include military issues and policy and veteran's affairs.
Email: mcq51 -at - bellsouth -dot- net

Tantor is a former USAF navigator/weapon system officer (WSO) in F-4E Phantoms who served in the US, Asia, and Europe. He is now a curmudgeonly computer geek in Washington, DC, picking the taxpayers pocket. His avocations are current events, aviation, history, and conservative politics.

Twenty-three years of Active and Reserve service in the US Army in SF (18B), Infantry and SOF Signal jobs with operational deployments to Bosnia and Africa. Since retiring he's worked as Senior Defense Analyst on SOF and Irregular Warfare projects and currently ensconced in the emerging world of Cyberspace.

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A Marine who began his blog in Iraq and reflects back on what he learned there and in Afghanistan. To the point opinions, ideas and thoughts on military, political and the media from One Marine’s View.Email: onemarinesview AT yahoo DOT com

Uber Pig was an Infantryman from late 1991 until early 1996, serving with Second Ranger Battalion, I Corps, and then 25th Infantry Division. At the time, the Army discriminated against enlisted soldiers who wanted use the "Green to Gold" program to become officers, so he left to attend Stanford University. There, he became expert in detecting, avoiding, and surviving L-shaped ambushes, before dropping out to be as entrepreneurial as he could be. He is now the founder of a software startup serving the insurance and construction industries, and splits time between Lake Tahoe, Boonville, and San Francisco, CA.

Uber Pig writes for Blackfive a) because he's the proud brother of an enlisted Civil Affairs Reservist who currently serves in Iraq, b) because he looks unkindly on people who make it harder for the military in general, and for his brother in particular, to succeed at their missions and come home in victory, and c) because the Blackfive readers and commenters help keep him sane.

COB6 spent 24 years in the active duty Army that included 5 combat tours with service in the 1st Ranger Battalion and 1st Special Forces Group . COB6 was enlisted (E-7) and took the OCS route to a commission. COB6 retired a few years back as a field grade Infantry officer.
Currently COB6 has a son in the 82nd Airborne that just returned from his third tour and has a newly commissioned daughter in the 4th Infantry Division.